An OPENING/CLOSING BODY DRIVE DEVICE is known which is provided with a drive mechanism that moves an opening/closing body between an opening position and a closing positon relative to a frame portion having an opening, and a control unit to control the drive mechanism.
For example, the OPENING/CLOSING BODY DRIVE DEVICE includes an automatic door device for automatically opening/closing a slide type door and a window glass raising/lowering device for a vehicle for automatically raising/lowering the window glass of a vehicle door.
To electrically open/close the opening/closing body such as the slide type door or the window glass, a mechanism to prevent pinching by the opening/closing body is generally provided on the OPENING/CLOSING BODY DRIVE DEVICE.
As such OPENING/CLOSING BODY DRIVE DEVICE, the applicant of the present invention proposes a vehicle glass raising/lowering device that is provided with a camera for imaging a detection line provided along a window frame, and performs a pinching prevention operation for the drive mechanism to prevent pinching by the window glass when the detection line captured in an image by the camera is partially blocked by the foreign object (see e.g., PTL1).
The vehicle glass raising/lowering device described in PTL 1 is provided with a light source unit having a plurality of light emitting elements that emits infrared radiation toward the detection line, and can detect the foreign object that may be pinched during the night etc., by capturing an image of infrared radiation emitted from the plurality of light emitting elements and reflected by the detection line by the camera arranged in the vicinity of the light source unit.
Further, the vehicle glass raising/lowering device described in PTL 1 partially protrudes a lens into which the reflected light reflected by the detection line enters from a door trim for capturing an image of the entire detection line formed along the window frame by the camera.